In the condemnation of evil there certainly lies a love for good: indignation at social ills and illnesses presupposes a passionate longing for health. F.M. Dostoevsky
The work of the publicist, critic, writer, editor of the journal "Otechestvennye zapiski" Saltykov-Shchedrin continues and deepens the satirical trend in Russian literature begun by Griboyedov and Gogol. The appearance of a satirist of such magnitude in Russian literature became possible only thanks to faith in the transformative power of literature (which the writer himself called “the salt of Russian life”), and such faith really dominated in Russian society in the second half of the 19th century.
The real name of the writer is Saltykov. Nickname" Nikolay Shchedrin"he signed his early works (on behalf of N. Shchedrin the story was told in “Provincial Sketches”). Therefore, having become famous precisely as Shchedrin, he began to sign with a double surname. Future writer, vice-governor of the Tver and Ryazan provinces born January 27, 1826 in the village of Spas-Ugol, Tver province (now Taldomsky district, Moscow region) in the family of a hereditary nobleman and successful official Evgraf Vasilyevich Saltykov and the daughter of a Moscow nobleman Olga Mikhailovna Zabelina. Saltykov-Shchedrin's first teacher was the serf artist Pavel Sokolov, and at the age of ten, the future satirist was sent to the Moscow Noble Institute. As one of the best students in 1838, he was assigned to study at public expense at the most prestigious educational institution of his time - the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum (the same one where Pushkin studied). The future writer graduated from the Lyceum in 1844 with the second grade (with the rank of tenth grade - the same as Pushkin) and was assigned to public service in the office of the Minister of War. During his lyceum years he began to write poetry, but the quality of these poems was extremely low, and the writer subsequently did not like to remember them.
The story brought Saltykov literary fame "Tangled Case" (1848), written under the influence of Gogol’s “Petersburg Tales” and the novel “Poor People” by Dostoevsky. The hero’s reflections on Russia as a “vast and abundant state”, where a person “is starving to death in an abundant state” played fatal role in the fate of the author: it was in 1848 that the third revolution took place in France, which entailed increased censorship in Russia. The writer was for freethinking and “harmful direction” exiled to clerical service in Vyatka, where he spent almost 8 years.
In 1856, Saltykov-Shchedrin married the daughter of the Vyatka vice-governor Elizaveta Boltina, returned to St. Petersburg and, becoming an official for special assignments under the Minister of Internal Affairs, was sent to the Tver province. In the civil service, Saltykov-Shchedrin actively fought against the abuses of officials, for which he received the nickname “Vice-Robespierre.” In the same year it was published "Provincial Sketches" , written under the impression of the Vyatka exile and brought him real literary fame.
From 1862 to 1864 collaborates with Nekrasov’s Sovremennik and runs the “Our Public Life” column in it. After the closure of Sovremennik and Nekrasov’s transfer to the journal Otechestvennye Zapiski, he became one of its co-editors. Until 1868, the writer was in public service in the Penza, Tula and Ryazan provinces. And only work in the magazine “Otechestvennye zapiski” forces him to leave his bureaucratic job and settle in St. Petersburg. Saltykov-Shchedrin would work in the editorial office of the magazine until the closure of Otechestvennye Zapiski in 1884.
In 1869, the writer published one of his most significant works - the story "The Story of a City" . This work, built on hyperbole and grotesque, satirically illuminates Russian history under the guise of the history of the fictional city of Foolov. At the same time, the author himself emphasized that he is not interested in history, but in the present. Summarizing the age-old weaknesses and vices of Russian public consciousness, Saltykov-Shchedrin shows the unsightly sides of state life.
The first part of the book gives a general outline of Foolov's history - in fact, a parody of "The Tale of Bygone Years" in part of the story about the beginning of Russian statehood. The second contains a description of the activities of the most prominent mayors. Actually, Foolov's story boils down to constant and senseless change of rulers with complete obedience of the people, in the minds of which the bosses differ from each other only in the methods of flogging (punishment): only some flog indiscriminately, others explain the flogging by the requirements of civilization, and still others skillfully extract from the Foolovites the desire to be flogged.
Images of city rulers in highest degree caricatured. For example, Dementy Brudasty (Organchik) successfully ruled the city, having in his head instead of a brain a mechanism that reproduced two phrases “I’ll ruin!” and “I won’t tolerate it!” - controlled until the mechanism broke. Six rulers then bribe soldiers for a short-lived reign, and two of them literally eat each other, being put in a cage, and the history of these six mayors is easily guessed palace coups 18th century (in fact, not six, but four empresses of the 18th century came to power through a coup: Anna Leopoldovna, Anna Ioannovna, Elizaveta Petrovna and Catherine the Second). The mayor Ugryum-Burcheev resembles Arakcheev and dreams of building the city of Nepreklonsk instead of Foolov, for which he creates “systematic nonsense” for organizing the barracks life of Foolov’s men, who will have to walk in formation and simultaneously do meaningless work. The Foolovites and their city are saved from destruction only by the mysterious disappearance of the mayor, who one day simply disappeared into thin air. The story of Gloomy-Burcheev is the first experience of dystopia in Russian literature.
From 1875 to 1880, Saltykov-Shchedrin worked on the novel "Messrs. Golovlevs" . Initially, it was not a novel, but a series of stories chronicling the life of one family. The idea of writing a novel was suggested to the author by I.S. Turgenev, who read the story “Family Court” in 1875: “ I really liked “Family Court”, and I look forward to the continuation - a description of the exploits of “Judas”» ". Turgenev's recommendation was heard. Soon the story “In a Family Way” appeared in print, and three months later the story “Family Results” appeared. In 1876, Saltykov-Shchedrin realized that the history of the Golovlev family was taking on the features independent work. But only in 1880, when the story of the death of Judushka Golovlev was written, individual stories were edited and became chapters of the novel. Members of the writer’s own family acted as prototypes for the novel’s characters. In particular, the image of Arina Petrovna reflected the features of Saltykov-Shchedrin’s mother Olga Mikhailovna Zabelina-Saltykova, a powerful, tough woman who did not tolerate disobedience. The author himself was embroiled in a legal battle with his brother Dmitry, whose features are embodied in the image of Porfiry the Judushka (according to A.Ya. Panaeva, back in the 60s Saltykov-Shchedrin called his brother Dmitry the Judushka).
The composition of the novel itself is subject to disclosure ideological content: Each chapter ends with the death of one of the family members. Step by step, the writer traces the gradual degradation - first spiritual, and then physical - of the Golovlev family. The breakdown of the family allows Porfiry Vladimirovich to concentrate more and more wealth in his own hands. However, following the story of the disintegration of the family, a story begins about the history of the disintegration of the individual: Porfiry, left alone, reaching the limits of his fall, mired in vulgarity and idle talk, dies ingloriously. The discovery of the “numb corpse of the Golovlev gentleman” seems to put an end to the history of the family. However, at the end of the work, we learn about a certain relative who had long watched the death of the Golovlev family and expected to get their inheritance...
From 1882 to 1886 Saltykov-Shchedrin writes "Fairy tales for children of considerable age" . This cycle includes 32 works that continue the traditions established in “The History of a City”: in a grotesque-fantastic form, the writer recreates a satirical picture of modernity. The thematic content of fairy tales is varied:
1) denunciation of the autocracy (“Bear in the Voivodeship”);
2) denunciation of landowners and officials (“ Wild landowner", "The story of how one man fed two generals");
3) denunciation of cowardice and passivity (“ The wise minnow", "Liberal", "Crucian idealist");
4) the position of the oppressed people (“Horse”);
5) truth-seeking ("On the Road", "The Raven Petitioner").
The artistic features of fairy tales are the aphoristic language and the combination of reality and fantasy.
IN last years Saltykov-Shchedrin worked on the novel “Poshekhon Antiquity,” which he completed three months before his death. Writer died May 10, 1889 In Petersburg.
Saltykov-Shchedrin M.E. Biography.
Saltykov-Shchedrin, Mikhail Evgrafovich
(real name Saltykov, pseudonym N. Shchedrin) (1826 - 1889)
Saltykov-Shchedrin M.E.
Biography
Russian writer, publicist. Saltykov-Shchedrin was born on January 27 (old style - January 15) 1826 in the village of Spas-Ugol, Kalyazin district, Tver province. Father came from ancient noble family. Mikhail Saltykov spent his childhood years on his father’s family estate. The first teachers were the serf painter Pavel and the elder sister Mikhail. At the age of 10, Satlykov was admitted as a boarder to the Moscow Noble Institute, where he spent two years. In 1838, as one of the most excellent students, he was transferred as a government student to the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum. At the Lyceum he began to write poetry, but later realized that he did not have a poetic gift and left poetry. In 1844 he completed a course at the Lyceum in the second category (with the rank of X class) and entered service in the office of the War Ministry. He received his first full-time position, assistant secretary, only two years later.
The first story (“Contradictions”) was published in 1847. On April 28, 1848, after the publication of the second story, “A Confused Affair,” Saltykov was exiled to Vyatka for “... a harmful way of thinking and a harmful desire to spread ideas that had already shaken up the whole Western Europe... ". July 3, 1848 Saltykov was appointed as a clerical official under the Vyatka provincial government, in November - a senior official of special assignments under the Vyatka governor, then twice appointed to the position of ruler of the governor's office, and from August 1850 he was appointed adviser to the provincial government. In Vyatka lived for 8 years.
In November 1855, after the death of Nicholas I, Saltykov received the right to “live wherever he wishes” and returned to St. Petersburg. In February 1856 he was assigned to the Ministry of Internal Affairs (served until 1858), in June he was appointed an official of special assignments under the minister, and in August he was sent to the Tver and Vladimir provinces “to review the paperwork of the provincial militia committees” (it was convened in 1855 on the occasion of the Eastern War ). In 1856, Saltykov-Shchedrin married 17-year-old E. Boltina, the daughter of the Vyatka vice-governor. In 1856, on behalf of the "court councilor N. Shchedrin", "Provincial Sketches" were published in the "Russian Bulletin". From that time on, N. Shchedrin became known throughout reading Russia, who named him Gogol’s heir. In 1857, "Provincial Sketches" was published twice (the next editions were published in 1864 and 1882). In March 1858, Saltykov was appointed vice-governor of Ryazan, and in April 1860 he was transferred to the same position in Tver. I always tried to surround myself at my place of work with honest, young and educated people, firing bribe-takers and thieves. In February 1862, Saltykov-Shchedrin retired and moved to St. Petersburg. Having accepted the invitation Nekrasov N.A. , is a member of the editorial board of the Sovremennik magazine, but in 1864, as a result of internal disagreements on the tactics of social struggle in new conditions, he parted with Sovremennik, returning to public service. In November 1864, Saltykov-Shchedrin was appointed manager of the treasury chamber in Penza, in 1866 he was transferred to the same position in Tula, and in October 1867 - in Ryazan. The frequent change of duty stations is explained by conflicts with the heads of the provinces, at whom the writer “laughed” in grotesque pamphlets. In 1868, after a complaint from the Ryazan governor, Saltykov was dismissed with the rank of full state councilor. Returning to St. Petersburg, in June 1868 Saltykov-Shchedrin accepted N.A.’s invitation. Nekrasov to become co-editor of the journal Otechestvennye Zapiski, where he worked until the magazine was banned in 1884. Saltykov-Shchedrin died on May 10 (old style - April 28) 1889 in St. Petersburg, shortly before his death he began work on a new work, “Forgotten Words.” He was buried on May 2 (old style), according to his wishes, at the Volkov cemetery, next to I.S. Turgenev.
Among the works of Saltykov-Shchedrin are novels, short stories, fairy tales, pamphlets, essays, reviews, polemical notes, journalistic articles: “Contradictions” (1847: story), “A Confused Case” (1848; story), “Provincial Sketches” (1856- 1857), “Innocent Stories” (1857-1863; collection published in 1863, 1881, 1885), “Satires in Prose” (1859-1862; collection published in 1863, 1881, 1885), articles on peasant reform, “Testament to my children" (1866; article), "Letters about the province" (1869), "Signs of the times" (1870; collection), "Letters from the province" (1870; collection), "History of a city" (1869-1870; publication 1 and 2 - in 1870, 3 - in 1883), "Modern Idylls" (1877-1883), "Pompadours and Pompadourches" (1873; years of publication - 1873, 1877, 1882, 1886), "Gentlemen of Tashkent" (1873; years of publication - 1873, 1881, 1885), "Diary of a provincial in St. Petersburg" (1873; years of publication - 1873, 1881, 1885), "Well-intentioned speeches" (1876; years of publication - 1876, 1883), "In an environment of moderation and accuracy "(1878; years of publication - 1878, 1881, 1885), "Gentlemen Golovlevs" (1880; years of publication - 1880, 1883), "Refuge of Monrepos" (1882; years of publication - 1882, 1883), "All Year Round" (1880; years of publication - 1880, 1883), "Abroad" (1881), "Letters to Auntie "(1882), "Modern Idyll" (1885), "Unfinished Conversations" (1885), "Poshekhonsky Stories" (1883-1884), "Fairy Tales" (1882-1886; year of publication - 1887), "Little things in life" ( 1886-1887), "Poshekhon antiquity" (1887-1889; separate publication - in 1890), translations of works by Tocqueville, Vivien, Cheruel. Published in the magazines "Russian Herald", "Sovremennik", "Atheneum", "Library for Reading", "Moscow Herald", "Time", "Domestic Notes", "Collection of the Literary Fund", "Bulletin of Europe".
__________
Information sources:
"Russian biographical dictionary"
Project "Russia Congratulates!" - www.prazdniki.ru
(Source: “Aphorisms from around the world. Encyclopedia of wisdom.” www.foxdesign.ru)
. Academician 2011.
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Saltykov Shchedrin, Mikhail Evgrafovich (real name Saltykov, pseudonym N. Shchedrin) (1826 1889) Russian writer. Aphorisms, quotes Saltykov Shchedrin M.E. Biography. Literature has been removed from the laws of decay. She alone does not recognize death. There are legions... ... Consolidated encyclopedia of aphorisms
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- (real surname Saltykov, pseudonym “N. Shchedrin”) (1826 1889). Outstanding Russian satirist writer and poet, classic of Russian literature. Genus. in the village of Spas Ugol (Kalyazin district, Tver province), studied in Moscow. Noble Institute, graduated... ... Big biographical encyclopedia
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Russian prosecutor public life
I. Sechenov
M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin was born on January 27 (January 15), 1826 in the village of Spas-Ugol, Kalyazin district, Tver province. His parents were wealthy landowners. Their possessions, although located on inconvenient lands, among forests and swamps, brought significant income.
Childhood
The writer’s mother, Olga Mikhailovna, ruled the estate; Father Evgraf Vasilyevich, a retired collegiate adviser, had a reputation as an impractical person. The mother directed all her worries towards increasing her wealth. For the sake of this, not only the courtyard people, but also their own children fed from hand to mouth. Any pleasures and entertainment in the family were not accepted. Continuous enmity reigned in the house: between parents, between children, whom the mother, without hiding, divided into “favorites and hateful ones,” between masters and servants.
A smart and impressionable boy grew up amid this home hell.
Lyceum
At ten years old, Saltykov entered the third grade of the Moscow Noble Institute, and two years later, together with other best students, he was transferred to the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum, which in those years was far from what it was under Pushkin. The lyceum was dominated by a barracks regime, where “generals, equestrians... children who were fully aware high position, which their fathers occupy in society,” Saltykov recalled about his spiritual loneliness in “the years of early youth.” The Lyceum gave Saltykov the necessary amount of knowledge.
Since January 1844, the lyceum was transferred to St. Petersburg, and it began to be called Alexandrovsky. Saltykov was a graduate of the first St. Petersburg course. Each new generation of lyceum students pinned their hopes on one of the students as a successor to the traditions of their famous predecessor. One of these “candidates” was Saltykov. Even in his lyceum years, his poems were published in magazines.
Years of service
In the summer of 1844 M.E. Saltykov graduated from the Lyceum and entered service in the Chancellery of the War Ministry.
In 1847, the young author wrote his first story, “Contradictions,” and the following year, “A Tangled Affair.” Stories young writer responded to pressing socio-political issues; their heroes were looking for a way out of the contradictions between ideals and the life around them. For publishing the story “A Confused Affair,” which revealed, as War Minister Prince Chernyshev wrote, “a harmful way of thinking” and “a disastrous direction of ideas,” the writer was arrested and exiled by order of the Tsar to Vyatka.
“Vyatka captivity,” as Saltykov called his seven-year stay there in the service, became for him a difficult test and at the same time a great school.
After life in St. Petersburg, it was uncomfortable among friends and like-minded people young man in the alien world of provincial officials, nobility and merchants.
The writer's love for the daughter of Vice-Governor E.A. Boltina, whom he married in the summer of 1856, brightened up the last years of Saltykov’s stay in Vyatka. In November 1855, by the “highest command” of the new Tsar Alexander II, the writer received permission to “live and serve wherever he wishes.”
Literary work and the vicissitudes of public service
M.E. Saltykov moved to St. Petersburg, and from August 1856, “Provincial Sketches” (1856–1857) began to be published in the magazine “Russian Bulletin” on behalf of a certain “retired court councilor N. Shchedrin” (this surname became the writer’s pseudonym). They reliably and poisonously depicted the omnipotence, arbitrariness and bribery of “sturgeon officials”, “pike officials” and even “minnow officials”. The book was perceived by readers as one of the " historical facts Russian life" (in the words of N.G. Chernyshevsky), who called for the need for social change.
The name of Saltykov-Shchedrin is becoming widely known. They started talking about him as Gogol's heir, who boldly exposed the ulcers of society.
At this time, Saltykov combined literary work with public service. For some time in St. Petersburg, he held a position in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, then was vice-governor in Ryazan and Tver, and later - chairman of the state chambers (financial institutions) in Penza, Tula and Ryazan. Implacably fighting bribery and staunchly defending peasant interests, Saltykov looked like a black sheep everywhere. His words were passed from mouth to mouth: “I won’t hurt a man! It will be enough for him, gentlemen... It will be very, very much so!”
Denunciations rained down on Saltykov, he was threatened with trial “for abuse of power,” provincial wits nicknamed him “Vice Robespierre.” In 1868, the chief of gendarmes reported to the Tsar about Saltykov as “an official imbued with ideas that do not agree with the types of state benefit and legal order,” which was followed by his resignation.
Collaboration with Sovremennik magazine
Returning to St. Petersburg, Mikhail Evgrafovich devotes all his enormous energy to literary activity. He planned to publish a magazine in Moscow, but, without receiving permission, in St. Petersburg he became close to Nekrasov and from December 1862 became a member of the editorial board of Sovremennik. Saltykov came to the magazine at the very hard times When Dobrolyubov died, Chernyshevsky was arrested, government repressions were accompanied by the persecution of “nihilistic boys” in the “well-intentioned” press. Shchedrin boldly spoke out in defense of democratic forces.
Next to journalistic and critical articles he placed and works of art- essays and stories, the acute social content of which was clothed in the form of Aesopian allegories. Shchedrin became a true virtuoso of “Aesopian language,” and only this can explain the fact that his works, rich in revolutionary content, could, albeit in a truncated form, pass through the fierce tsarist censorship.
In 1857–1863, he published “Innocent Stories” and “Satires in Prose,” in which he took major royal dignitaries under satirical fire. On the pages of Shchedrin's stories, the city of Foolov appears, personifying a poor, wild, oppressed Russia.
Work in Otechestvennye zapiski. "Pompadours and pompadours"
In 1868, the satirist joined the updated edition of Otechestvennye zapiski. For 16 years (1868–1884) he headed this magazine, first together with N.A. Nekrasov, and after the poet’s death he becomes the executive editor. In 1868–1869, he published programmatic articles “Vain Fears” and “Street Philosophy,” in which he developed the views of revolutionary democrats on the social significance of art.
Basic form literary works Shchedrin chose cycles of stories and essays, combined common theme. This allowed him to respond vividly to events in public life, giving their deep meaning in a vivid, figurative form. political characterization. One of the first Shchedrin collective images became the image of a “pompadour” from the series “Pompadours and Pompadours,” published by the writer during 1863–1874.
Saltykov-Shchedrin called the tsarist administrators who operated in post-reform Russia “pompadours.” The name “pompadour” itself is derived from the name of the Marquise of Pompadour, the favorite of the French King Louis XV. She loved to interfere in the affairs of the state, distributed government positions to her entourage, and squandered the state treasury for the sake of personal pleasure.
The writer's work in the 1870s
In 1869–1870, “The History of a City” appeared in “Notes of the Fatherland.” This book was the most daring and evil satire on the administrative arbitrariness and tyranny that reigned in Russia.
The work takes the form of a historical chronicle. In individual characters it is easy to recognize specific historical figures, for example, Gloomy-Burcheev resembles Arakcheev, in Intercept-Zalikhvatsky contemporaries recognized Nicholas I.
In the 70s, Saltykov-Shchedrin created a number of literary cycles in which he widely covered all aspects of life in post-reform Russia. During this period, Well-Intentioned Speeches (1872–1876) and The Refuge of Mon Repos (1878–1880) were written.
In April 1875, doctors sent the seriously ill Saltykov-Shchedrin abroad for treatment. The result of the trips was a series of essays “Abroad”.
Fairy tales
The 80s of the 19th century were one of the most difficult pages in the history of Russia. In 1884, Otechestvennye zapiski was closed. Saltykov-Shchedrin was forced to handle his works in the editorial offices of magazines, whose position was alien to him. During these years (1880–1886), Shchedrin created most of his fairy tales - unique literary works in which, thanks to the highest perfection of Aesopian style, he was able to carry out the harshest criticism of the autocracy through censorship.
In total, Shchedrin wrote 32 fairy tales, reflecting all the essential aspects of life in post-reform Russia.
Last years. "Poshekhon antiquity"
The last years of the writer’s life were difficult. Government persecution made it difficult to publish his works; he felt like a stranger in the family; numerous illnesses forced Mikhail Evgrafovich to suffer painfully. But Shchedrin does not leave until the last days of his life literary work. Three months before his death, he finished one of his best works, the novel “Poshekhon Antiquity.”
In contrast to the idyllic pictures of noble nests, Shchedrin resurrected in his chronicle the true atmosphere of serfdom, drawing people into “a pool of humiliating lawlessness, all sorts of twists of slyness and fear of the prospect of being crushed every hour.” Pictures of the wild tyranny of the landowners are complemented by scenes of retribution befalling individual tyrants: the tormentor Anfisa Porfiryevna was strangled by her own servants, and another villain, the landowner Gribkov, was burned by the peasants along with the estate.
This novel is based on an autobiographical beginning. Shchedrin’s memory picks out individuals in whom “slave” protest and faith in justice matured (“the girl” Annushka, Mavrusha the Novotorka, Satyr the Wanderer).
The seriously ill writer dreamed of finishing his work as quickly as possible. last piece. He “felt such a need to get rid of “Old Things” that he even crumpled it up” (from a letter to M.M. Stasyulevich dated January 16, 1889). The “Conclusion” was published in the March 1889 issue of the journal “Bulletin of Europe”.
The writer lived out his last days. On the night of April 27-28, 1889, he suffered a blow from which he never recovered. Saltykov-Shchedrin died on May 10 (April 28), 1889.
Literature
Andrey Turkov. Mikhail Evgrafovich Saltykov-Shchedrin // Encyclopedia for children “Avanta+”. Volume 9. Russian literature. Part one. M., 1999. pp. 594–603
K.I. Tyunkin. M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin in life and work. M.: Russian word, 2001
One of the most famous Vyatka exiles was Mikhail Evgrafovich Saltykov-Shchedrin. The writer and official spent 8 long years in Vyatka against his will. It was a difficult and ambiguous, but extremely important time in the fate of Saltykov.
Portrait of Saltykov-Shchedrin by Ivan Kramskoy
Childhood
Mikhail Saltykov was born into an old noble family in the village of Spas-Ugol, Kalyazin district, Tver province. He was the sixth child of the hereditary nobleman Evgraf Vasilyevich Saltykov (1776–1851). Saltykov-Shchedrin's first teacher was his parents' serf, painter Pavel Sokolov; then his elder sister, the priest of a neighboring village, the governess and a student at the Moscow Theological Academy worked with him. At the age of 10, Saltykov entered the Moscow Noble Institute, and two years later he was transferred as one of the best students to the famous Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum. In August 1844, Saltykov was enlisted in the office of the Minister of War and only two years later received his first full-time position there - assistant secretary. Literature even then occupied him much more than service: he not only read a lot, being particularly interested in George Sand and the French socialists, but also wrote - at first, small bibliographic notes published in the journal Otechestvennye Zapiski.
Fateful in Saltykov’s life was his acquaintance with the revolutionary figure M. V. Butashevich-Petrashevsky, with whom Mikhail Evgrafovich studied at the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum. Petrashevsky invited Saltykov to attend his famous “Fridays” - weekly meetings at which current political issues were discussed. Gradually, Saltykov became imbued with liberal ideas and, under their influence, created the story “A Confused Affair.” The story contained a certain degree of freethinking, which during the reign of Nicholas I was persecuted cruelly and decisively by the tsarist administration, which was greatly impressed by the February Revolution. French revolution. Moreover, the circumstances coincided extremely unfortunately for Saltykov. The most important thing in the fate of the aspiring writer was a conversation that happened at one of the social events between Saltykov’s boss at the War Ministry, A.I. Chernyshev, and Nicholas I. The Emperor reproached Chernyshev: “And why are your employees engaged in such paperwork?” Despite the fact that this phrase was said by the emperor more as a joke, Chernyshev took these words quite seriously, apparently considering himself publicly disgraced. Subsequently, Chernyshev became one of those who actively insisted that Saltykov suffer cruel punishment for your story. Initially, he even offered to exile Saltykov as a private to the Caucasus, but here Nikolai pulled Chernyshev down with excessive zeal and said: “But you’re trying too hard here.” So in 1848 Saltykov ended up in Vyatka. It’s interesting that he really didn’t like the story “A Confused Affair” itself, and only later, years later, he once remarked in a private conversation: “And the devil compelled me to write such nonsense.”
Beginning of the 20th century
Pretty decent apartment
M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin spent all 8 years of Vyatka exile in the same house in the second part of the city on Voznesenskaya Street. This house was built in 1848 and belonged to the estate of the former Bavarian manufacturer Johann Christian Rasch, who registered as a tradesman in Vyatka. Saltykov rented the entire house - four rooms and a “people’s room” - with a total area of about 120 square meters. meters. During the period of exile, an old servant (“uncle”) Platon and a young valet Gregory lived with him. In letters to his brother, Saltykov called his Vyatka refuge “a fairly tolerable apartment” and noted that he lived quite modestly. It is curious that the Vyatka police chief advised Saltykov-Shchedrin, who was looking for housing, to look at this particular house. The house was located relatively close to the center and from Mikhail Evgrafovich’s place of work, and at that time it was completely new. The fact that no one had lived in the house before and that it was clean and tidy was important for the visiting exiled official, born and raised in a wealthy family. The interior layout of the house has remained almost unchanged to this day. One of the rooms is a vestibule; three rooms were occupied by Saltykov; Next was the kitchen and, finally, the people's room, where two serfs were accommodated.
Career
On July 3, 1848, Saltykov was enlisted in the Vyatka provincial government as a junior official, essentially a simple scribe. But already on November 12 of the same year, thanks to the petition of the Vyatka vice-governor Kostlivtsev, Saltykov’s comrade at the lyceum, and St. Petersburg acquaintances, the young 23-year-old writer was approved as a senior official for special assignments. From May 30 to August 20, 1849, Saltykov was already the ruler of the chancellery, and from August 5, 1850, he was appointed adviser to the Vyatka provincial government. Thus, Saltykov is quite short time carried out a very solid career, in fact, he became the third person in the entire province in terms of influence - after the governor and vice-governor. Saltykov himself was obviously surprised at his official agility. In one of his letters to his brother D.E. Saltykov dated March 25, 1852, he said: “...If you saw me now, you would, of course, be amazed at my change. I've become completely business person, and there is hardly any other official in the whole province whose official activity would be more useful to her. I say this in good conscience and without boasting, and I fully owe all this to Sereda, who instilled in me that living care, that constant concern for the affairs of the service, which puts them for me much higher than my own...” Indeed, Governor A.I. Sereda treated Saltykov well, as did N.N. Semenov, who replaced the head of the province in the most important post.
The building of the provincial government offices in which Saltykov worked during the Vyatka exile. Beginning of the 20th century
Lots of work to do
In Vyatka, Saltykov worked a lot and became famous for his energy and perseverance in official matters, intolerance towards corruption and bribery. He was always the first to arrive at work and the last to leave, and even at home in Vyatka he set up an office for himself to work. In a letter to his brother, Saltykov said: “The work is such a waste that I am absolutely often lost: sometimes I would like to handle every matter conscientiously and maturely, but you get so tired that the matter involuntarily falls out of your hands. I absolutely have no assistants, because everyone is trying to get away with things. It is very remarkable that I am the least in the service and understand the matter more than anyone, despite the fact that I have subordinates who have been dealing with business for fifteen years.” Saltykov traveled a lot around the province, dealt with issues of statistics, auditing the economy and finances, and compiled annual reports for the Vyatka province. There were them in the first half of the 19th century. wrote according to an old template. All local institutions sent reports in January about their activities in the past year. Half-meter-high “crowds” of papers accumulated in the provincial government. Saltykov critically assessed the reliability and completeness of the reports presented. Noting errors in them, he demanded “ full picture activities, and not a statement of duties,” as some police officers and mayors did. In addition to the economic department, he was also in charge of the newspaper desk (with a library attached to it) and the printing house. During the year, Saltykov received more than 12 thousand official papers and sent 40-50 replies and orders daily. There were 19 officials working under him, but he often independently prepared drafts of various reports, certificates, relations and personally edited all important documents. While investigating the case of the Old Believers, Saltykov met the 74-year-old merchant T.I. Shchedrin, whose last name he later took as his literary pseudonym.
Rumors, gossip and novels
In Vyatka society, Saltykov was accepted not as a disgraced rebel, but as a person with good means(his parents had more than 2000 peasant souls), noble origin and brilliant education, and as an enviable groom for the best Vyatka brides. It is logical that Vyatka young ladies paid attention to Saltykov, seeking his favor. However, he himself, according to memoirists, was a great lover of women. Saltykov was credited with an affair with the wife of Governor A.I. Sereda, Natalya Nikolaevna, a woman already of a very advanced age. Also in the literature, the point of view about whirlwind romance Saltykova with the wife of doctor N.V. Ionin, Sofia Karlovna. A number of authors were even of the opinion that S.K. Ionina’s daughter Lydia, born in 1856, was actually Saltykov’s illegitimate child. However, many of the novels that were attributed to Saltykov were in reality just rumors and fables. Mikhail Evgrafovich himself very clearly reported this to his brother in one of his letters: “You won’t believe (...) how boredom overcomes me in Vyatka. Here such gossip constantly arises, espionage and nasty things are organized in such a way that you really can’t open your mouth lest the most absurd fables be told about you... People live here only by fables and gossip, which truly makes a decent person sick...”
Bust of M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, located in the southern building of the former provincial government offices. 2015
Love of my life
It is little known, but it was in Vyatka that Saltykov met the love of his life. While in exile in Vyatka, he often visited the home of his immediate superior, Vice-Governor A.P. Boltin. Gradually they became friends, Mikhail Evgrafovich met the Boltin family: his wife Ekaterina Ivanovna and two 12-year-old twin daughters - Elizaveta and Anna. Initially, he liked both sisters at once: in one the writer valued intelligence, in the other - beauty. However, soon beauty won: secretly meeting with Lisa, the writer seriously falls in love. He calls the girl affectionately “Betsy.” “That was my first fresh love, those were the first sweet worries of my heart!” - Mikhail Evgrafovich later wrote. The romance is actively developing, but the union is hampered by the bride’s youth. Saltykov patiently waited for Elizaveta to grow up and they would get married. However, unexpectedly, the Boltins leave Vyatka and move to Vladimir, to the place of the new service of the father of the family. Saltykov suffers and suffers because he cannot follow his love - the conditions of Vyatka exile do not allow this.
Detractors say that he secretly went to Vladimir to visit Lisa a couple of times. Soon, the death of the tsar, who stubbornly kept Saltykov in exile in Vyatka, allowed Mikhail Evgrafovich to see his beloved. He asks Olga Mikhailovna’s mother for blessings for the marriage, but she flatly refused to bless her son’s marriage to the “dowryless” Boltina. At the same time, the bride's father A.P. Boltin suggested that Saltykov take a break in his relationship with Lisa for a whole year. If a year later Saltykov does not change his mind and Lisa does not mind, then the wedding will take place. Saltykov waited stubbornly and in the end, in June 1856, he finally achieved his goal and married Elizaveta Boltina. The couple had no children for 17 years; only on February 1, 1872, the Saltykovs gave birth to their first child, son Kostya, and on January 9, 1873, daughter Lisa. Despite the fact that the marriage was quite complicated, Saltykov and Boltina lived together all their lives.
Elizaveta Boltina in her youth.
Quarrelsome character
Saltykov was a very complex person, with a difficult, extremely difficult character. L. N. Spasskaya recalled this very vividly in her memoirs. In particular, the following episode is typical: “My parents treated M.E. more coldly than he treated them, due to his difficult character and many unsympathetic habits - and indeed, one had to have inexhaustible patience with him: coming several times every day, he quarreled and made up every now and then. An intelligent, interesting and witty interlocutor, M.E. could not tolerate contradictions and in an argument lost all self-control and lost his temper. Now he grabbed his hat and ran away, muttering to himself: “Well, to hell with you! My foot will no longer be in this damn house! and the like... But not even half an hour has passed before M.E.’s embarrassed face appears from behind the door, and he asks with a guilty and timid smile: “Well, are you very angry with me? Well, for God's sake, don't be angry! Forgive me! What is my fault that I have such a damned character?
Also, the excessive rudeness with which Saltykov interacted with his servants was noted more than once. He loved inviting friends over for dinner and was often upset that many refused. The reason was precisely Saltykov’s manner of scolding and scolding his servants in the most last words with absolutely wild rage right at the dinner table. Moreover, Saltykov was literally enraged by any, even innocent, mistake or clumsiness of a servant. As for behavior at a party, here too Saltykov often behaved unrestrainedly. Having a bad stomach, he loved to eat and did not refuse invitations from Vyatchan acquaintances. L.N. Spasskaya recalled that after these dinners, Saltykov, out of his habit, came every day to the Ionins’ house, and since, having eaten too much, he always felt unwell, he began to cruelly criticize the dinners and scold the hosts who treated him. Loved Saltykov and card games, at the gaming table he behaved as absurdly and violently as he often did in ordinary life.
The house in Vyatka on Voznesenskaya Street, in which M. E. Saltykov lived during his exile.
2015
Liberation
During his 8-year exile, Saltykov repeatedly submitted requests for release, but each time they were rejected. On February 18, 1855, Emperor Nicholas I died, and there was real hope for changes not only in the life of the Vyatka exile, but also in the fate of Russia in general. In addition, a happy accident also helped Saltykov. In the fall of 1855, Adjutant General P. P. Lanskoy, cousin of the new Minister of Internal Affairs, came to Vyatka on militia business with his wife Natalya Nikolaevna (in her first marriage, Pushkina, née Goncharova). Having met Saltykov and having entered into his position, Lanskoy accepted “ lively participation“in his position, and on October 13 sent to St. Petersburg an official proposal for the release of Saltykov, supporting his request with private letters to his brother-minister and manager of the III Department, Dubelt. Exactly a month later, the Minister of Internal Affairs S.S. Lanskoy notifies the Vyatka governor that Emperor Alexander II “deigned to give the highest command: to allow Saltykov to live and serve wherever he wishes.” On November 29, police surveillance was removed from Saltykov, and on December 24, having handed over his affairs and sold, and partly abandoned his property, he left Vyatka forever.
Photo: ru.wikipedia.org, GAKO, S. Suvorov, A. Kasanov
This classic of Russian literature is quoted most of all and read least of all. Few can boast that they have read it in full. But it is even more difficult to imagine a person who, when asked who his favorite writer is, will answer: “Mikhail Evgrafovich Saltykov-Shchedrin.”
And yet, the mere mention of his name invariably evokes a mixed feeling of joy and some shame. This eternal writer. Eternal because you can’t deceive him, you can’t escape him. He “undresses” each and every one - naked, to shame. But this is not based on a bilious desire to criticize, but on absolute honesty and knowledge human nature.
Saltykov-Shchedrin's contemporaries did not notice his death in 1889. Everything turned out to be extremely everyday and natural in its own way. He lived and was, wrote something, said something, some liked it, some didn’t. Then it seemed to many that life had stopped and there was no point in waiting for changes. But, as Mikhail Evgrafovich himself wrote about that time, the time became motley. Motley because there was not a single color in sight and was not visible in the near future. Everything was fragmented, atomized, everyone was against everyone and against everyone at once. But Saltykov-Shchedrin still concluded that there was nothing new. However, human nature is unchangeable, and nothing good or new can be expected.
Alexander Kuprin was the first to return to Saltykov-Shchedrin. He returned 22 years after the writer’s death in 1911 in his story “Giants.” The story of the story is simple and uncomplicated. A drunken gymnasium teacher (and a drunken gymnasium teacher is the hero of Saltykov-Shchedrin’s “Provincial Sketches”) puts portraits of Pushkin, Gogol, Nekrasov in front of him and begins to grade them. Suddenly he notices a piercing and terrible look directed at him from the corner. And it seemed to him that the lips in the portrait opened and uttered words that he could not imagine from any of the Russian classics. Waking up in the morning in a cold sweat, the teacher takes the portrait of Saltykov-Shchedrin and takes it from the classroom to the pantry. He is afraid of this look; the portrait cannot be destroyed - state property. It seems that in this story Kuprin expressed his attitude towards Saltykov-Shchedrin, which was based primarily on respect. No matter how cruel and bilious his late colleague was, he still left to all his heirs a sick conscience for Russia. Precisely the sick one, not the calm one. And thus he left his successors that impulse of indifference that made them great writers.
Shortly before his death, Saltykov-Shchedrin told one and a few of his close friends Unkovsky: “It’s not a pity that you die, but that after death you will remember only jokes.” Like looking into the water. His words, like almost all works, turned out to be prophetic.
Father, Evgraf Vasilyevich Saltykov.
“My father was fairly educated at that time...
It had no practical meaning at all and loved to grow on beans.
In our family, it was not so much stinginess that reigned, but some kind of stubborn hoarding.”
M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin.
Of all the Russian writers of the 19th century, Saltykov-Shchedrin seems to me one of the most sentimental. His sentimentalism was taken to the absolute, and it was for this reason that the most cynical Russian pamphlets, satire, written on the verge of what was permitted, came from his pen. This is an internal experience when he suffered for everyone and let everything pass through himself. It is impossible to imagine that after what was written, this extremely closed person sobbed bitterly at the life around him. This feeling is difficult to explain, but it is understandable. If we remember his “Conscience Lost” or “Truth”, placed in a strange fairy tale about how a boy dies from an overflow of feelings from a divine service, because his heart is overwhelmed with delight, and he cannot bear it, then this will be the real Shchedrin. The one we didn't notice. And the basis of his attitude to the world was the highest religious feeling - absolute faith in God.
He was neither a Westerner nor a Slavophile. And his view of the surrounding Russian reality was not at all a manifestation of rejection of the regime. And he was never a fighter with him. Moreover, he himself was part of the power system of that time, for a long time he served as vice-governor in the Ryazan and Tver provinces.
Mother, Olga Mikhailovna Zabelina.
“She appeared among us only when, according to the complaints of the governesses, she had to punish.
She appeared angry, unforgiving, with her lower lip bitten, resolute in her hand, angry.”
M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin.
This is the cliche of a fighter against the tsarist regime, firmly glued to Saltykov in Soviet time, by inertia is still alive today. His formation began in the Moscow boarding school, and, as one of the best students, he was transferred to the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum. And according to the rules of good manners at the Lyceum, writing poetry was mandatory. It’s hard to believe, but in his lyceum years Mikhail Saltykov passionately dreamed of becoming a poet on a par with Pushkin. And in that very thirteenth lyceum graduation, the devil’s dozen, Saltykov writes poems about the Russian plains, about coachmen, about love for the homeland.
Mikhail Evgrafovich in childhood. Saltykov's childhood years were spent on a rich landowner's estate,
located on the border of Tver and Yaroslavl provinces.
As one of the best graduates of the lyceum, he receives an appointment immediately to War Department. And from the first day of service, with all his soul he harbors a fierce hatred for this work. As he himself later asserted, “writing two hundred petitions from insignificant people to insignificant people does not mean being in public service. Nevertheless civil service was this." Here two points converged in young Saltykov, which would later be regarded by many as the writer’s eternal nihilism towards the entire social order. But I think that this was not quite the case. Saltykov’s internal discomfort consisted of the cosmic distance between his brilliant education and real everyday life. An abundance of education is not always a luxury, but most often a heavy burden that not everyone can bear. When you have “specialists in holes and cracks” under your command, it’s easier to say - a company of binders, and in the head of Fourier with his ideal ideas of social structure, internal discomfort is guaranteed. Petrashevsky and his circle were close in spirit to him. But fate favored Mikhail Evgrafovich. At the peak of the Nikolaev repressions of 1848, for two stories “Contradiction” and “Confused Affair” published in Otechestvennye Zapiski, he was sent to Vyatka not as a successful official, but as a compiler of meaningless annual reports. This city, which we know as Kirov, became Saltykov’s place of life for seven whole years. It was a kind of exile, it was indefinite. But he was not forbidden to write. This is where he will take his literary pseudonym Nikolai Shchedrin, who would later become part of his family name. In "Provincial Sketches" main character- it’s himself, Shchedrin, who travels around for twelve months a year provincial cities and everyone. He drives around and cries all the time. He doesn't cry literally, he constantly whines from internal discomfort.
House in Vyatka on Voznesenskaya street,
where M.E. Saltykov lived during his exile.
Photo from 1880.
The Vyatka exile ended not thanks to his constant letters to St. Petersburg, but according to the law of nature. The death of Nicholas I gave Russia hope and a thaw. This definition does not belong to Ilya Ehrenburg, as we still believe, but to Fyodor Tyutchev. Saltykov was immediately forgiven in 1855. And moreover, his “Provincial Sketches” is far from his masterpiece literary creativity, were immediately printed.
Today there is no consensus on which work of Saltykov-Shchedrin should be considered the main one. The inertia of the Soviet era and, above all, the fact that “The Golovlev Gentlemen” were included in the compulsory school curriculum, leave first place to this novel. The main argument for this was the personal opinion of the leader of the world proletariat, Vladimir Lenin, that this particular work is the best panorama of Russian life from business to secular, from peasant to bureaucratic. But this is just one opinion. There is another thing, the most popular today, that the main work of Saltykov-Shchedrin is still his novel “The History of a City.”
Petersburg. House on Liteiny Prospekt,
where the editorial office of Otechestvennye zapiski was located.
Saltykov lived at the turn of two eras. In the Russian social, I emphasize, social and not political tradition, there has always been a certain predetermination - a sinusoidal cycle of development - either “freeze” or “thaw”. Either a turn to the West, or a return to the East. And the eternal search for an ideal social structure.
The idea for this novel with very strange content came to Saltykov after meeting Nekrasov. They met in 1857 and really disliked each other. Strictly speaking, all outstanding Russian writers in real life they were far from angels. Their works and themselves are two different things. And that's putting it mildly. Nikolai Nekrasov is an extraordinary and contradictory personality. With us, he was always almost a revolutionary, a defender of the people. But what about Nekrasov, who comes out to Panaev and says: “We are refreshing a newbie here.” Refreshing means plucking. A merchant arrived, lost ten thousand rubles at cards and ran away. That's Nekrasov's trouble! But the question is different - it is extremely difficult to imagine a graduate of the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum, Mikhail Saltykov, as Nekrasov’s closest literary associate. But two human extremes miraculously came together in professionally.
Journal work requires accuracy in submitting texts on time, and Nekrasov was forced to agree to accept reviews from Saltykov. The editor-in-chief of Sovremennik liked his accuracy and commitment.
Wife Elizaveta Apollonovna Boltina.
Reviews titled "Our modern life” in “Notes of the Fatherland” soon bored Saltykov, and he decided to write them in a metaphorical style. This is why the city of Foolov was invented. The plot of the novel was simple - first the pre-reform and then the post-reform city of Foolov was depicted. We are talking about the reforms of Alexander II after the abolition of serfdom.
There is a huge gap between the first chapter of “The History of a City” - ironic, extremely ironic, containing the entire list of mayors - and the terrible finale, which ends with the cry of Gloomy-Burcheev: “It has come! History has stopped flowing. The last destruction has come to Russia.” And how charming it all began.
Son Konstantin.
It begins with a list of mayors, one of whom doubled the city’s population, another turned out to have a stuffed head, and the third was a completely maiden. So what, you say? Yes, this is you and me, the entire typology of Russian power! And if the first person does not correspond to this paradigm of public life, that is, to you and me, do not expect good things. Saltykov strictly and specifically describes the entire Russian typology political elements. And the basis for it is not criticism of political power, but an analysis of the state of society. We understand that Ugryum-Burcheev is this Nicholas I, to whom Saltykov was very offended for his exile. But it's not that.
Daughter Elizabeth.
Writing a novel for Saltykov-Shchedrin at that moment was not the main meaning of his life. The new emperor, as compensation for the forced exile, offered a good and decent position as vice-governor of the Tver region. And Saltykov began transformations there. It should be noted that almost the entire intellectual elite of that time was convinced that they needed to go do practical farming and direct all their knowledge and experience (which they did not have) to the development of capitalism in the country. An inspired Saltykov wrote: “Five years later, as soon as the man is released, the farm will flourish.” But it was not there. Saltykov-Shchedrin himself, with the Vitenevo estate he bought, went bankrupt in a matter of months. He sincerely believed that he must personally set an example of free housekeeping. But I just couldn’t understand that it was one thing to fight on the pages of a magazine and in bureaucratic life for the freedom of a peasant, and another thing to teach him this freedom. Find out for yourself and teach others to become an owner. It was a revelation to him how freedom immediately became will.
The brilliant poet Afanasy Fet was just as romantic at that time. But the peasants quickly robbed him. After which he became a cruel serf owner, and was doomed to oblivion by Soviet literary criticism. But during his lifetime he became a successful landowner, by our standards a decent business executive, constantly scolding Leo Tolstoy for excessive liberalism. But until the 70s of the 19th century, he was a sincere liberal who did not understand what a downtrodden, corrupted and treacherous people he was dealing with.
For Shchedrin this was a personal disappointment. He could not understand and internally agree that the freedom given to the people would be used primarily for deception. After all, he conceived “The History of a City” as an innocent joke, but it turned out to be a very terrible and gloomy prophecy. His disappointment was all the more painful because he could not come to terms with the fact that he spoke to men in different languages. And the whole paradox of the Russian intellectual elite of that time was that only Nikolai Nekrasov understood the essence of what was happening. It was the same Nekrasov who wrote “Who Lives Well in Rus'.”
Today on the screens of Russian television you can hear the idea, quite wildly, that the abolition of serfdom was a political mistake of Alexander II. I think this is stupidity and a substitution of concepts. In my opinion, the bottom line is that freedom and democracy are worth something. And every member of society cannot receive it by decree or order from above. You have to earn it, including with your head. And it was this disappointment that hurt Saltykov-Shchedrin the most.
He guessed the path of Russia's development for at least a century in advance. Intuition, all your passion and intransigence. We consider Vsevolod Garshin to be the founder of Russian modernism. Based on his published stories, this is true. But modern, how artistic phenomenon, rests on two foundations - merger creativity both real life and, sadly (and Garshin has this), on the aestheticization of vulgarity. According to the second basis, Garshin is the ancestor. What about the first one? I think that the championship here belongs to Saltykov-Shchedrin. Of course, he was not a modernist writer; Shchedrin belonged to the last of the Mohicans of the Russian “golden” literary age. But he clearly guessed Russia's path of movement.
We are often misled by calls for immediate modernization of all public life along Western lines. Modernity is not a Western phenomenon. It is alien to the West due to its gradual pace of development. Modernity is a phenomenon characteristic of countries of the catching-up type of evolution. It originated in the Russian, Austro-Hungarian, German Empires and Sweden. Literary and artistic modernity always precedes political modernity. He is a constant companion of socialism or the collapse of the state. Extremely painful and tragic. The German and Austro-Hungarian empires did not stand the test and did not survive the 20th century. The Russian Empire transformed into Soviet Union, which collapsed at the end of the twentieth century. The Swedish socialism that is commonly talked about today, in pure form a product of modernity. But the Swedes got over it - national tradition and mono-nationality saved them. Great culture " silver age“In its greatness, it also brought something that many cannot come to terms with in the 21st century - the loss of Christian guidelines - mass culture, same-sex marriage, etc.
Monument to M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin in Kursk.
Saltykov-Shchedrin felt the future and understood a lot. His works are perceived by many as encrypted texts. But this is not encryption, but a generalization, a search for the matrix of that history, the maximum typification in which we live today. All these generalizations are framed in the form of dialogues.
He died early, at only 63 years old. This self-eating took its toll. From everything he experienced, Mikhail Evgrafovich Saltykov-Shchedrin wanted to write his main work, “Forgotten Words.” He explained his desire simply: “Now there are many words that no one remembers. No one remembers what conscience is, no one remembers what sacrifice is, and they certainly don’t remember God at all.”
Saltykov-Shchedrin as a writer is a mystery to us all. In ours not very read time Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin remains the most popular Russian classic. Our time is his second literary birth. And he is far from school and not children's writer, let’s not be mistaken in this, saying “the tales of Saltykov-Shchedrin.” The first satirist of Russia, and in fact - a mirror of everything Russian and Russian society, not crooked, although sometimes unpleasant, has survived its time and entered the minds of everyone, regardless of our desire, regardless of whether we know about it or not.